Thursday, 24 January 2013

There is another sky,Ever serene and fair,And there is another sunshine,Though it be darkness there;Never mind faded forests, Austin,Never mind silent fields -Here is a little forest,Whose leaf is ever green;Here is a brighter garden,Where not a frost has been;In its unfading flowersI hear the bright bee hum:Prithee, my brother,Into my garden come!

Monday, 14 January 2013

Ever heard of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch?
No, I'm not fooling round! This is the real, 58 characters-long name of a real place. It's a village in Wales, beautiful Wales. The name means: Saint Mary's Church in the hollow of white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of Saint Tysilio near the red cave.

Have you had enough of it, a few minutes later? I'm sorry... Oh, are you done? You think this is piece of cake, huh? Well, then, why don't you try this town in Thailand? Let me know about your progress... ;)

If you want more information on Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (even though there doesn't seem to be so much to know about it), just go to Wikipedia, because it really is the best source of information about the city on Google as of 13/01/2013!

Friday, 11 January 2013

Hey there, English learners. This picture will certainly come in handy when you start seeing people in an English-speaking country. It shows the terms we use to describe relationships and the levels of commitment they represent. If you're not acquainted with those terms, it's a good idea to google them up before you decide to use them. Although this is a representation of America's dating terms, most of them are also valid if you're in Britain - you'll only have to add some other terms widely used there - I'll leave the research to you. Have fun!

Friday, 4 January 2013

Why is grammar so important? Well, the establishment of grammar is a process that occurs in late language consolidation stages, long after epilinguistic (= unconscious, intuitive) use of language and phonological awareness have already taken place. Epilinguistic awareness is directly 'opposed' to metalinguistic awareness, which basically means 'know about what you (already) know', namely, turn language into an object we can talk about, reflect upon and be conscious of. In simple terms it means understanding the structures of language, how and when to use this or that, so on and so forth. This knowledge is important to ensure not only accurate (written) command of language, as many people think, but it also ensures that accurate communication will take place! Who's never heard things such as: 'I go to beach on January', when people start talking about their last holiday or their future plans? Here it seems like the person goes to the beach in January, every year, right? I'm not even minding the preposition, but not using Past of Future tense here generates a miscommunication. Knowing which verb tense or which preposition has to be used in a certain situation is highly important for us to convey our actual thoughts.

And so does grammar also create a sense of common identity for nations, tribes, communities or whatever group of people with a 'lingua franca', in establishing patterns of usage that are common to all of them and which are different from the patterns of their neighbour's language. It's one of the major factors that DO NOT allow for things like Portuñol (which is how we name a sort of mixed language, a mix of Portuguese and Spanish, in my country), in the sense that they define the language being used as either Portuguese or Spanish. Those factors are therefore very important in preserving national identities and grammar is one of them!

And by the way, I'm not saying I disfavour the birth of mixed languages, which is not my opinion AT ALL! I'm just saying it is important to preserve the original languages as well, for language is, in my opinion, a people's greatest heritage and its greatest emblem!